The Zenit-2M, Zenit-2SB, Zenit-2SLB or Zenit-2FG was a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

expendable

carrier rocket A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and syste ...

derived from the

Zenit-3SL The Zenit-3SL is an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it has been launched 36 times, with three failures and one partial failure. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye ...

. It was a member of the Zenit family of

rockets A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

, which were designed by the

Yuzhmash The State Factory «Production Union Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant named after O.M. Makarov», PA Pivdenmash or formerly, PA Yuzhmash (Ukrainian: Державне підприємство «Виробниче об'єднання Півде ...

Development

The Zenit 2M was a modernised version of the

Zenit-2 The Zenit-2 is a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with 6 failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets and was designed by the Yuzhmash. History With 13– ...

, incorporating modifications and upgrades made to the design for the

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial lau ...

programme. Launches of Zenit-2M rockets were conducted from

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

Site 45/1. Commercial launches are conducted by

Land Launch Land Launch refers to a service product of Sea Launch SA. There is no entity or company called Land Launch. Sea Launch created the Land Launch offering to address lighter satellites directly into geosynchronous orbit or into geosynchronous transfe ...

, and use the designation 2SLB, however as of 2011, no commercial launches have been ordered. Launches conducted by

Roskosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

or the

Russian Space Forces The Russian Space Forces ( rus, Космические войска России, Kosmicheskie voyska Rossii, KV) are a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, that provides aerospace warning, air and space sovereignty, and other related protect ...

use the designation 2M. The designation 2SB can also be applied to the rocket when it is being used as part of a larger vehicle, such as the

Zenit-3SLB The Zenit 3SLB or Zenit-3M is a Ukrainian expendable carrier rocket derived from the Zenit-2SB. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, which were designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Office. Produced at Yuzhmash, the rocket is a modified ve ...

. The first launch of a Zenit-2M occurred on 29 June 2007, carrying the last Tselina-2

ELINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

satellite for the

, Tselina-2 satellites having been previously launched by older Zenit-2 rockets. The second launch, carrying the

Fobos-Grunt Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (russian: link=no, Фобос-Грунт, where ''грунт'' refers to the ''ground'' in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian sample return mis ...

and

Yinghuo-1 Yinghuo-1 () was a Chinese Mars-exploration space probe, intended to be the first Chinese planetary space probe and the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit Mars. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011, along with ...

spacecraft, was conducted on 8 November 2011, using a modified configuration designated the ''Zenit-2FG''. This configuration incorporated the payload fairing used on the Zenit-3F rocket, and a special adaptor for the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft, which incorporated a

Fregat Fregat (russian: Фрегат, ''frigate'') is an upper stage developed by NPO Lavochkin in the 1990s, which is used in some Soyuz and Zenit launch vehicles, but is universal and can be used as a part of a medium and heavy class launch vehic ...

-derived propulsion system. The Zenit-2 and Zenit-2M, however, were supplanted by the

after 2008.

References

* * Zenit (rocket family) Vehicles introduced in 2007 {{Rocket-stub

Development

See also

References